How I Would Learn Digital Marketing (If I Could Start Over)

Summary

This video script narrates the journey of a digital marketing expert who, despite early mistakes and setbacks, rose to prominence in SEO. The speaker emphasizes focusing on a single digital marketing area, learning in stages, and practicing diligently. They advocate for taking a course, gaining hands-on experience, and avoiding shortcuts. Networking and relationship building are highlighted as crucial for growth. The speaker also discusses career paths in digital marketing, including specialization, generalism, or expanding into complementary areas. The script offers a candid and motivational account of learning from failures and the continuous pursuit of knowledge in the ever-evolving field of digital marketing.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Start with a Single Focus: The speaker emphasizes the importance of choosing one area of digital marketing to specialize in, rather than trying to master everything at once.
• 📈 Learn from Mistakes: The speaker acknowledges making costly mistakes early in their career, which ultimately fueled their determination to learn and succeed.
• 🔍 SEO as a Turning Point: A negative experience with an SEO company led the speaker to commit to mastering SEO, which significantly increased their business value.
• 🌐 Broad Definition of Digital Marketing: Digital marketing encompasses various areas such as email marketing, PPC advertising, SEO, and social media marketing.
• 📚 Learn in Stages: The speaker suggests a three-stage learning process: understanding fundamentals, connecting concepts, and learning execution techniques.
• 🛠️ Use Tools and Workflows: Familiarize yourself with the tools and workflows necessary for your chosen digital marketing field, such as using Keyword Explorer for SEO.
• 👨‍🏫 Take a Course: The speaker recommends taking a reputable course in your chosen area to establish a solid foundation.
• 💼 Practice with Your Own Site: Create your own website to gain hands-on experience and safely practice the skills you've learned.
• 🚫 Avoid Distractions: Once you start practicing, cut off new content intake to stay focused on applying the fundamentals.
• 🔗 Build Relationships: Networking with peers and respected professionals in your niche can significantly enhance your growth and opportunities.
• 🛑 Avoid Shortcuts: The speaker warns against taking shortcuts, sharing a personal experience where it led to significant financial loss.
• 🤝 Network Strategically: Building relationships with like-minded individuals and industry leaders can lead to unexpected opportunities and collaborations.
• 🔑 Continuous Learning: The speaker highlights the importance of ongoing learning and adapting, even after many years in the field.
• 🛣️ Diverse Career Paths: There are multiple paths in a digital marketing career, including staying a generalist, niching down, or expanding into complementary areas.
• 🏆 Embrace the Journey: The speaker encourages embracing the journey of learning and growing in the digital marketing field.

Q & A

What is the speaker's background in digital marketing?

The speaker has a 14-year career in digital marketing, having built and sold several online businesses, consulted for various clients from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, and been recognized as an 'SEO expert' by Forbes and Inc magazines. They are also considered to be in the top 1% of their field by the United States government.

What was the speaker's initial approach to digital marketing before focusing on SEO?

Initially, the speaker started with spamming forums and classifieds, then moved to paid advertising, and later attempted to go viral with coupon codes on social media. It was after being scammed by an SEO company that the speaker decided to focus solely on learning SEO.

How did the speaker's experience with an SEO company lead to a significant change in their career?

The speaker was scammed by an SEO company, which instead of discouraging them, fueled their determination to learn SEO and become proficient at it, so they would not have to rely on hiring another company.

What is the definition of digital marketing according to the speaker?

Digital marketing is defined as marketing that happens over the internet, which can include areas such as email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and more.

Why is it recommended to focus on just one area of digital marketing?

It is recommended to focus on one area because digital marketing is vast, and it is impossible to become a master of all areas. Specializing allows one to become really good at one specific area.

What are the three stages the speaker suggests for learning digital marketing?

The three stages are: 1) Understanding the fundamentals of the chosen area, 2) Making connections in how the fundamentals work together, and 3) Learning how these techniques are executed, including workflows and tools needed.

What is the importance of taking a reputable beginner's course in digital marketing?

A reputable beginner's course provides a structured learning environment and covers the fundamentals in a systematic way. It can save time and money that might otherwise be wasted on unguided learning.

Why is it crucial to practice what you've learned in digital marketing?

Practicing what you've learned is crucial because it provides first-hand experience and allows you to apply the theoretical knowledge in a practical setting, which is essential for mastering the skills.

What are the benefits of working at an agency in terms of digital marketing experience?

Working at an agency offers exposure to a diverse range of projects, forces you to be creative and apply your learning in various scenarios, and allows you to learn from more experienced professionals who can mentor you.

What mistake did the speaker make early in their career that had significant financial repercussions?

The speaker took an SEO shortcut by buying backlinks from a private blog network, which was against Google's webmaster guidelines. This led to a significant loss of traffic and revenue when Google penalized their site.

Why is building relationships with people important in digital marketing?

Building relationships is important because it can lead to collaborations, support in amplifying your work, and assistance in link building. It also helps in professional growth and learning from others in the field.

What are the three options the speaker suggests for career progression in digital marketing?

The three options are: 1) Staying a generalist in the focus area and potentially becoming a manager or leader, 2) Niching down further to become a recognized authority in a specific sub-area, and 3) Expanding into other areas of digital marketing where skills are complementary and transferable.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Starting Over in Digital Marketing

The speaker reflects on their 14-year journey in digital marketing, highlighting achievements such as selling online businesses, consulting for various clients, and being recognized by Forbes and Inc. Despite this success, they acknowledge their mistakes and the valuable lessons learned. The speaker proposes a hypothetical scenario of starting over, emphasizing the importance of focusing on one area of digital marketing, sharing their personal experience with SEO, and the pivotal moment that led to their dedication to mastering it. They also define digital marketing and suggest that specialization is key to becoming proficient in the field.

05:04

📚 Learning Digital Marketing in Stages

The speaker outlines a three-stage learning process for digital marketing, using SEO as an example. The first stage involves understanding the fundamentals, such as the importance of SEO, how search engines operate, and the basics of keyword research, link building, and technical SEO. The second stage is about connecting these fundamentals and recognizing their interdependencies. The third stage focuses on the practical application of these techniques, including the use of tools and understanding workflows. The speaker recommends taking a reputable course, like their free SEO fundamentals course, to guide this learning process and advises against the pitfalls of self-guided learning without structured guidance.

10:07

🛠 Practicing and Accelerating Digital Marketing Skills

The speaker emphasizes the importance of practical experience in learning digital marketing, suggesting that creating one's own site provides a safe space for experimentation. They advise to focus on practicing the fundamentals and avoid getting distracted by non-essential details. To accelerate growth, they recommend seeking employment or internships at an agency for diverse project exposure and learning from experienced professionals. The speaker also warns against taking shortcuts, sharing a personal anecdote about the severe consequences of an SEO shortcut that cost them significantly in revenue and business value. They stress the importance of building relationships with peers and industry leaders, as these connections can provide support, learning opportunities, and career advancement.

🌟 Evolving Your Digital Marketing Career

The speaker discusses the potential paths for career development in digital marketing. They present three options: remaining a generalist to gain broad knowledge and potentially become a manager or leader, niching down to become a recognized authority in a specific area with less competition, or expanding into complementary areas of digital marketing to diversify one's skill set. The speaker shares their own continuous learning journey, the value of learning from smart people, and the importance of intentional learning and doing. They conclude by encouraging those interested in SEO to take a beginner's course to learn how to drive organic traffic to their sites.

Keywords

💡Digital Marketing

Digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels and platforms to promote products or services. It encompasses a wide range of activities including SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and more. In the video, the speaker's career in digital marketing began 14 years ago and includes building and selling online businesses, consulting for various clients, and being recognized as an SEO expert.

💡SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the process of improving a website's visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) through both technical and creative efforts. It is a key aspect of digital marketing that focuses on driving organic traffic. The speaker emphasizes the importance of SEO in growing their business to a seven-figure valuation and shares their journey from being scammed by an SEO company to mastering the skill.

💡Online Businesses

Online businesses are enterprises that operate primarily on the internet, selling products or services through digital channels. The speaker mentions building and selling several online businesses, which is part of their broader experience in digital marketing and a testament to the practical application of their skills.

💡Paid Advertising

Paid advertising involves paying for promotional space on various platforms to increase visibility and drive traffic to a website or landing page. The speaker admits to initially wasting money on paid advertising due to a lack of knowledge, highlighting the importance of understanding the nuances of each digital marketing strategy.

💡Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to promote products or services. It often involves creating content that will go viral or engage audiences to increase brand awareness. The speaker pivoted to social media marketing, attempting to go viral with coupon codes, as part of their explorative journey in digital marketing.

💡Fundamentals

In the context of learning digital marketing, fundamentals refer to the basic principles and concepts that form the core of understanding a specific area, such as SEO. The speaker advises focusing on understanding the fundamentals as the first stage of learning, which includes the importance of SEO, how search engines work, and the main techniques involved.

💡Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of identifying and analyzing search terms that people enter into search engines. It is a critical component of SEO and helps in creating content that ranks higher on SERPs. The speaker mentions keyword research as part of the SEO fundamentals and as a necessary step in executing SEO techniques.

💡Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. It is a key aspect of SEO that helps increase a website's credibility and search engine ranking. The speaker shares a personal story about taking a shortcut in link building that ultimately cost them significantly, underscoring the importance of ethical and sustainable practices.

💡Content Creation

Content creation involves producing and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience. In the script, content creation is mentioned as being reliant on keyword research and connected with on-page SEO, emphasizing the interplay between different SEO components.

💡Agency

An agency in the context of digital marketing refers to a business that offers marketing services to clients. The speaker recommends getting a job or internship at an agency to gain diverse project experience and learn from more experienced professionals, which can accelerate one's growth in the field.

💡Networking

Networking involves building and maintaining professional relationships to exchange information and ideas. The speaker highlights the importance of networking with like-minded individuals and respected professionals in the niche to foster personal and professional growth, as well as to potentially open up new opportunities.

Highlights

Speaker has 14 years of experience in digital marketing and has been recognized as an SEO expert by Forbes and Inc.

The speaker built and sold multiple online businesses and consulted for a range of clients from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

The United States government ranks the speaker in the top 1% of digital marketers.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing on one area of digital marketing to master it, rather than spreading efforts too thin.

A personal anecdote about the speaker's early failures in digital marketing, including spamming forums and wasting money on paid advertising.

The pivotal moment when the speaker's interest in SEO was ignited after being scammed by an SEO company.

By 2011, the speaker's company was worth over 7 figures, largely due to mastering SEO.

Digital marketing is defined as marketing that happens over the internet, including email marketing, PPC, SEO, social media marketing, etc.

The speaker suggests learning digital marketing in three stages: understanding fundamentals, making connections, and learning execution techniques.

A recommendation to take a reputable beginner's course in the chosen area of digital marketing, such as a free SEO fundamentals course.

The importance of practicing what has been learned through creating one's own site for safe experimentation.

Two recommendations for staying focused while practicing: cutting off new content and not obsessing over non-essential details.

The benefits of getting a job or internship at an agency for diverse project exposure and learning from experienced professionals.

A cautionary tale about the severe consequences of taking SEO shortcuts, which cost the speaker a seven-figure loss.

The value of building relationships with like-minded individuals and respected professionals in the niche for growth and networking.

Three potential career paths in digital marketing: staying a generalist, niching down, or expanding into other areas where skills are transferable.

The speaker's ongoing learning journey and the importance of embracing the long-term nature of professional development in digital marketing.

A final recommendation to watch a beginner's SEO course for those interested in starting a career in digital marketing, specifically in SEO.

Transcripts

14 years ago, I started my career in digital marketing.

And throughout that time, I've built and sold a handful of online businesses, consulted

for small shops to celebrities to the Fortune 500, and I've been recognized in business

magazines like Forbes and Inc as an "SEO expert."

To top it off, the United States government considers me to be in the top 1% of my field.

Now, despite any success I've had in digital marketing, I've also made a ton of mistakes

along the way that cost me valuable time and money.

So today, I'm going to show you how I would learn digital marketing if I could start over

and I'll also share some of my biggest failures along the way.

Alright, so the very first thing I'd do is to choose just one area of digital marketing to focus on.

And this is the opposite of what I did.

So for context, in 2009, I started my first website and I basically spammed forums and classifieds.

That eventually slowed down, so I tried paid advertising.

And well… I wasted my money because I had no idea what I was doing.

But then social media was blowing up so I pivoted to that and tried to go viral with

coupon codes.

Boy was that embarrassing!

But still, I was making like a solid $2,000 a month.

I was officially a business man.

So I decided to hire a search engine optimization company because this is what we do!

And that was the turning point for me when my fire for SEO was ignited.

They scammed me for everything I had.

The good thing that came out of that though was that it fueled me with rage so much so

that I committed to focus on learning just SEO and to get really good at it so I wouldn't

have to hire another company.

And by around 2011, my company was worth over 7 figures and the main reason is because of SEO.

Now, by definition, digital marketing is just marketing that happens over the internet.

So you can choose to focus on just email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization,

social media marketing, etc.

Digital marketing is just so vast that it's impossible to become a master of all areas.

It's best to focus on just one area of internet marketing and to get really good at it.

Now, after you've chosen the area of digital marketing you want to focus on, you need to

make a mental commitment to learn as much as possible.

Now, while there isn't a single "right" way to learn digital marketing, what I've found

to be helpful is to learn in 3 stages.

So, for illustration purposes, let's say you chose SEO as your focus area.

Now, stage one is to focus on understanding the fundamentals.

So in SEO, that would include things like why and how SEO is important for businesses,

how search engines work, and the main ways SEO is done – so that includes keyword research,

link building, technical SEO and on-page SEO to name a few.

Fundamentals may not be exciting, but they're absolutely critical to learning, whether you're

learning an instrument, a new recipe, or digital marketing skills.

Stage two is all about making connections in how the fundamentals work together.

For example, you should be able to make the connection in SEO that content creation

is reliant on keyword research and that on-page SEO is connected with both your content writing

and keyword research.

Finally, stage three is all about learning how these techniques are executed – more specifically,

you'll want to get an idea of workflows and tools that you'll need to do your job.

For example, you should at least know that keyword research is done with a tool like

Keywords Explorer.

And the way people find keyword ideas is by starting with a broad seed, going to a keyword

ideas report, narrowing in on keywords with a set of filters, and then analyzing the search

engine results pages to understand if it's possible to compete.

These three stages are typically how courses are taught.

And for that reason, I think it's worth taking a reputable beginner's course on the area

of digital marketing you've chosen – like our free SEO fundamentals course.

This is something that I was too young and arrogant to do when I was getting started

with online marketing.

I went with the unguided route and literally… anytime someone said "advanced", I was like

Pavlov's dog and I'd give them all my attention.

I wasted tons of time and money because for some reason, I subconsciously thought it would

be more rewarding to figure it out on my own.

Now, as you go through this learning stage and consume content, there's going to be

a time when you feel like, "yeah, this all makes sense!"

But I can guarantee you that when you actually get to doing it, it's not going to

feel so straightforward anymore.

And that's why the next thing I recommend is to commit to actually practicing what you've learned.

In my opinion, there's no better way to learn digital marketing than to get first-hand experience.

And the best way to do that is to create your own site.

This way, you'll have a safe place to practice whatever and however you want.

Now, as you commit to actually doing something, I highly recommend doing two things.

#1. Cut yourself off from all new content.

You should have already consumed enough through a course or whatever resources that

you used to have a high-level view of what it looks like to execute on the marketing area you've chosen.

By cutting out new content, you'll be able to stay laser-focused on actually practicing

the fundamentals that will be an essential building block to your career.

And #2 don't obsess over things that aren't moving your progress forward.

For example, if you decide to build a hobby site so you can practice SEO, don't spend

hours trying to fine-tune your logo, fonts or blog layout.

As an SEO, you're going to want to focus on driving organic traffic through high rankings

in Google.

Now, if you're able to actually put all these things into practice, you will learn very quickly

how to actually get results with SEO or social media or email marketing or whatever area you

chose to focus on.

Now, if you want to know the fastest way to accelerate your growth and to put this "doing"

stage into overdrive, then I recommend getting a job or internship at an agency.

When you work at an agency, you get the unique experience of being able to work on a diverse

group of projects.

Not only is the exposure great, but it forces you to stretch that creativity muscle and to

apply your learning in various scenarios.

Now, perhaps the biggest advantage to working at an agency is that you get to be in the trenches

with people who are ahead of you in their digital marketing career.

You can ask them questions, watch them solve problems, and in some cases, people may be

willing to mentor you.

Thriving agencies are usually fast-paced environments, which obviously make them

a great place to learn digital marketing fast if that's your goal.

Now, while you obviously want to learn new skills as fast as possible, don't make

the mistake of taking shortcuts to get there.

And I'm talking from experience here.

Early in my career, I took an SEO shortcut that cost me seven-figures.

So my first company was an ecommerce store and I was driving the majority of its traffic through SEO.

Now, one of the hardest, but most important parts of SEO is getting backlinks to your pages.

And back in 2010 and 2011, backlinks were pretty much all you needed to rank a page

high in Google.

So I came across a private blog network called Build My Rank where I could buy virtually

an infinite number of backlinks.

And without fail, throwing a handful of links at each product page would boost it to the top of

Google for queries that were converting into tens of thousands of dollars every month.

The thing is, buying backlinks was and still is against Google's webmaster guidelines.

Now, while I was making a healthy living, I was getting ready to cash out.

But without warning, I lost like 85% of my traffic and a ton of revenue.

So when I sold the site a few months later, instead of getting a low seven-figure buyout,

I ended up getting, much, much, much, much less.

Now, had I focused on learning link building so I can build backlinks whenever I want,

not only would I have had a much nicer exit, but I would have been able to apply those

skills to pretty much every other SEO-driven business I created.

Bottomline: avoid shortcuts because they can be costly.

And you'll only really realize that in hindsight.

Now, another thing I would do differently is to actually build relationships with people.

So, for like the first 8 years of doing SEO, I literally didn't talk to anyone about what

I did because most people just didn't understand.

And it was lonely and I was really just stunting my professional growth.

So what I would do differently if I could start over is try and network with two different

groups of people.

So, Group 1 would be like-minded people who are trying to learn the same area of digital

marketing as you.

They're basically a safe place where you can share your ideas, experiences, and insights

without fear of judgment.

And not only can you learn from each other, but you'll also find motivation from each

other to get better at your craft.

In fact, this is what Mr. Beast did with a group of friends in his early stages of his YouTube career.

And in interviews, he frequently attributes his success to having this group of people

to grow with.

And the second group of people I'd network with are people you respect in your niche.

All it really takes is an email or a DM saying, "Hey, just wanted to let you know that I really

admire your work.

Thanks for all that you do!"

Now, that might sound weird, but at the end of the day, we're all just regular people.

In fact, in 2017 when I started sending these kinds of emails, I reached out to Tim Soulo,

CMO at Ahrefs, to just say that I respect what he's doing as a marketer – no agenda whatsoever.

To which he replied: "You've made my day!"

Fast forward one year, and I ended up working at Ahrefs.

Relationships in digital marketing are important.

In social media, these are people who can help amplify your work.

On YouTube, these are potential collaborators.

And in SEO, they're a critical part to link building.

Now, as you continue to build your own sites, work at agencies or other companies,

and network with like-minded people, you're going to come to a crossroad where you need to decide

what's next.

And I see three ways this can work – none of which I think are wrong or right.

So option 1, you can continue to stay a generalist in your focus area.

This means that you'll continue to build your knowledge and experience in most areas of

your specific field in digital marketing.

The pros with this is that generalists often become managers and leaders within companies

because they get more or less every part of what's being done.

The con is that you never really become an expert in anything, which obviously has its

own set of limitations.

Option 2, is to niche down further in your focus area.

So as you gain more knowledge and experience in your focus area, you're going to realize that

there's too much information to become a true expert in your field.

And for that reason, you may want to consider niching down further because each digital

marketing strategy breaks down quite a lot.

For example, if you've chosen to focus on social media, you may decide to focus strictly

on Facebook marketing.

Or perhaps you want to go more niche and choose Facebook group marketing for software companies.

Now, the pro of niching down is that it's much easier to become recognized as

a niche authority because there's less competition.

And if you're viewed as "that" authority, your reputation will likely be lasting and

you can typically demand higher wages.

The con is that there's usually less demand.

And option 3 is to expand into other areas of digital marketing.

And this is kind of the route that I've gone.

The way I recommend doing this is to expand into areas where your skills are complementary

and transferable.

For example, starting from SEO and expanding to content marketing is complementary and

the skills from SEO are totally transferable.

And even something like going from SEO to search ads would also be complementary

and some of those skills are transferable too.

Now, being 14 years into my digital marketing career, I can confidently tell you that I'm still

learning all the time.

And that's largely because I'm practicing a lot of the things that I just shared with you.

I work with a ton of smart people at Ahrefs in various departments who I love learning from.

I've had the opportunity to meet really smart people at conferences, through social media,

and even from random cold emails.

And I go through seasons of intentional learning, followed by intentional doing.

Now, while I've screwed up in many ways, I don't look at anything as a waste of time

because it helped me to get to where I am today.

I'm definitely not the smartest, richest, most recognized, or most successful digital marketer

in the world.

But this is a long journey that I've embraced along the way and I hope it's one that you'll

enjoy or are currently enjoying too.

Now, if you want to start your digital marketing career in SEO like I did, then I highly recommend

watching our SEO course for beginners which will teach you how to get free organic traffic

to your site from start to finish.

I'll see you there.